How two ex-criminals get into Beacon (Cinder)
by Chickenspoon42
Summary: Roman is Ruby Rose's brother. He was somehow separated from his family, during which both Summer and Ruby were killed. Roman was then raised by a rich family from Mistrel named the Crystals, before the government turned the public against them, forcing a now-orphaned Neo and Roman to a life of Crime. Re-write of Volume One. Expect irregular updates. Edit: I'm sorry
1. Roman Rose

**A/N**

I never really thought I'd be posting this, but I had people asking for it, (rather enthusiastically, might I add,) and so here I am, and there you are.

This is based off a fic I found, that had only the first chapter written, with Roman being Ruby's brother, and Roman has the Red Riding-Hood and Crescent Rose.

Disclaimer; Credit for the backstory and title goes to Frank Horrigan (the fanfic writer, not the fallout villain), and credit for RWBY itself goes to the amazing people at Rooster Teeth. May you forever rest in peace and rise in glory, Monty Oum.

A figure that all recognised easily sauntered up the street, as if she'd been born in the slums. Though her expensive clothing suggested otherwise, this part of Vale was where she felt mist at home. Most in control. Most powerful.

 _From Dust till Dawn._ She read, and correctly assumed that this would be the target her beautiful flame wanted her to suck dry.

Weiss Schnee knew that playing out orders like this wasn't going to help her throw her father over, but how could she resist that alluring tone, those heated glares and all of that _power?_ It was near impossible to do so, and Weiss had been living in Vale long enough to know that what was near impossible, wasn't worth the effort to obtain.

Juniors thugs opened the door for her, an action which she courteously acknowledged with a brief nod or recognition and a cold glare that set them grovelling at her feet.

"Move, you dolts!"

The shopkeeper backed up as much as he could without gaining Weiss' attention, an attempt which was futile for her sharp eyes.

"M-Miss Schnee! To w-what do I owe-"

"Dust. Dust is what you owe to me." seeing no point in further explaining, she turned her heel and snarled, "Move! You know what we're here for, so get the damn job done and we can leave! Sweet Oum," she buried her face in her hands and tubes her eyes in annoyance. "Even working with _animals_ would be better than this."

Roman cursed silently from the vent. Neo'll be in here soon, and if she walked in on a robbery, especially one committed by Weiss Schnee, the most ruthless revenge-driven criminal out there. He and Weiss had come face to face a few times, and… There was now a small slightly all-encompassing vendetta between them.

Weiss hated his _guts._ To be caught robbing the same shop as she was would almost certainly lead to his demise. He could only close his eyes and hope that Neo had the sense to run as soon as she saw an infamous Schnee robbery.

He tried not to move, but the plank position he'd locked himself in as soon as he saw the ex-heiress wasn't the _most_ comfortable of positions, if he was completely honest. He tried to gently lower himself to the floor of the vent, and the metal creaked.

Weiss' eyes snapped to the panel he was lying on, and the sword cut cleanly through the steel.

"Torchwick."

"Miss Schnee."

Roman hopped down, and the red cape that he was found in fluttered to rest on his back.

"Aww!" Weiss cooed at the fifteen-year-old thorn in her side. "You still wearing Mummy's cape?"

"You still stealing Daddy dearest's Dust?"

Perhaps that's not the best comeback. A blast of ice knocked him to the floor, and a five-inch stiletto pressed him to the floor.

"What are you doing here?"

Roman swallowed. "I was here to collect some Lien, but I'm actually just about to leave."

He pushed her off him, Monty knows how, and sped off down the road, yelling to a short raven-haired twelve year old on the way, "We're going, Neo!"

Seeing the livid Schnee sending a blast of Ice Dust towards them, she quickly blocked it with her parasol, and took off after her partner in survival.

Roman was halfway up the escape ladder when a series of glyphs formed in midair around him, shooting him upwards in the air and landing on the rooftop. He forward-rolled to take most of the impact force and stood, just a Weiss landed in front of him.

"You're not getting away, Torchwick!" she spat, and a Bullhead rose up behind her, as if to punctuate her authority on the matter.

She, with a grace that only a high-class Atlas heir could achieve whilst jumping onto a flying helicopter, back flipped onto said vehicle, and promptly shot a blast of her signature hand-crafted Ice Dust at Roman, creating a smoke screen of condensation in the air. Weiss cracked her "evil smirk", as it was so often called, only for it to shatter upon the sight of a blonde figure holding off the shards of ice.

The Huntress gathered the shards in midair, and fired them right at Weiss, who quickly summoned a glyph to protect herself.

"We got a Huntress!" She yelled into the control pit, and a woman dressed in red replaced Weiss' position. Her hands ignited, and several red coloured crystals materialised in thin air. They raced towards the pair on the rooftop, but the Huntress deflected it.

Whilst they were distracted, Neo's head popped over the side of the roof. Roman hissed at her whilst fiddling with a few setting s on a hidden dial on Melodic Cudgel. "Run, Neo! Stay at the old estate's barn, and I'll get to you as soon as I can. Go!"

He gave a subtle twist of the handle, and the auto-fire feature was selected. Raising the cane to eye-level, he started shooting alongside the blonde, who had used some form of telepathy to gain control over the splinters the two girls had fired at them. The ship lurched, and the darkness covering the fire-girl's face glinted slightly, two orange-yellow eyes blazing like fury as they turned and the side-door of the helicopter closed.

The blonde turned to him, and he stepped back under the intimidating gaze of the Huntress.

"Are you alright?"

He bolted, and the Huntress sighed and rolled her eyes, picking him up using what Roman could only assume to be her semblance, and walked away, a rather relaxed Roman floating in tow behind her.

 **A/N**

Once again, thank you Monty, Frank and those who willingly waste time for my admittedly not-the-best writing skills.


	2. You have green eyes

**A/N**

I'm sorry you had to wait a while for this, but I've got the next chapter up. _Finally_.

So yeah. Please enjoy, and thank you to everyone who reviewed, favourite, followed, even just read the thing. So yeah.

I'd just like to give out an extra special shot-out to Frank Horrigan (once again, the fanfic user, not the villain,) for credit with the title, the backstory, and even a little of the plot. And more importantly for putting up with my whinging.

So yeah.

Thanks so much again, and sorry again for the wait.

He sat in the seat across from the door, leaning forwards, so his crossed arms leant on the table. "What's this about? You got me. Why not throw me to the cops?" he mumbled, all rebellious fifteen year old throwing around some pent up angst.

The blonde smiled drily. "Roman Torchwick. Or do you prefer Roman Rose?"

The red-head flinched slightly, before a scowl set itself on his face. "Torchwick. I prefer Torchwick."

Glynda raised an eyebrow, clearly not buying into the lie, but not pursuing the subject any further. Instead, she waved for a white-haired man, one which Roman recognised instantly, to come in.

Ozpin set down a plate before him. Chocolate chip cookie. No Scone and Clotted Cream with Rose Petal Jam, but it'd have to do. Roman was _starving._

He nonchalantly took an easy, measured bite from the cookie and gestured for Ozpin to speak, the headmaster clearly having something to say. Before speaking directly, Ozpin scrutinised him carefully, leaning closer and taking in Roman's fiery orange hair and moss green eyes.

"Strange." He murmured. "You have… green eyes."

"They flash silver, like Neo's sometimes." Ozpin nodded, as if this was what he expected. At Glynda's confused glance towards his way, he clarified upon his last statement. "She's a friend." It was a lie, but it'd have to do. He couldn't be bothered to explain.

Turning back to the headmaster, he spoke again. "I reiterate; what's this about? Why am I here?"

"…you do know who we are, don't you?"

Roman laughed; though it was more like a bark of laughter than a true laugh. "Of course I know who you are. Who doesn't? Even Father somewhat respected you." He swallowed, the man who had taken care of him for so long and given him his new life still with him. He sighed, and continued. "Professor Ozpin, headmaster of Beacon and Professor Goodwitch, deputy head. Yang should be going to Beacon this year." He added as an afterthought, and pondered how his half-sister would do.

Out of nowhere, Ozpin's voice cut through his thoughts. "Do you want to go to Beacon with her?"

It was an odd request, and completely out of the blue, but Roman could not truthfully say that he hadn't thought of applying to Beacon the next year himself.

"You do know I am two years too young, right?" He leant back in his chair, raising an eyebrow.

"Yes, but we feel you'd benefit from our school if you went sooner rather than later."

He sighed, knowing he'd regret this sooner or later. "Fine. But only if Neo gets to come."

"Done."


	3. The Gleaming Beacon

**A/N**

Once again, guys, thanks so much for the support you've been giving me. 216 views as of me typing this. Thanks so much again, guys.

Don't be afraid to leave a review with any questions for me. I had a lovely conversation yesterday with a reviewer, so it isn't wasting time for me. I have literally nothing to do except for this.

Also, chapters are probably going to be longer now.

So yeah. Once again, Disclamer Time!

I'm not Monty, nor am I Frank. So yeah.

"Damn, airships are weird."

Neo only nodded in response. Her mismatched eyes flickered along the cliffs edging the huge lake, finally settling on the huge castle.

"Look! You can see Signal from up here!" He pointed, and Neo followed his gaze, finding the comparatively smaller school and sniffing dismissively.

"I wonder if that Qrow's down there…"

" _That Qrow?"_ Roman was decent enough to flinch at the voice, knowing who it was without turning around. Yang Xiao Long. His long-lost half-sister.

" _That Qrow,_ as you so delicately put it, is my uncle. An uncle you have just offended. So," She primed her weapons. "I think you'd prefer to say your prayers now, rather than when your brains are splattered across the walls."

Roman still didn't turn. "Uncle Qrow…" He contemplated aloud.

"You'd dare call him Uncle Qrow after what you just said? Only two people are allowed to call him Uncle Qrow," Yang continued, her voice fiery with indignation, "and you sure as hell ain't either of them, coz they're both dead."

Roman was at loss for what to say. After a few seconds of awkward silence and fuming huffs from Yang, he settled for a simple, "I'm not dead, Yang."

"What?"

He stayed silent, but turned away from the window to face the blonde, his orange emo-bangs swishing slightly with the movement.

" _Roman?"_ Yang did two things. She punched him right in the jaw, a small injury easily fixed by his Aura, and enveloped him in a bone-crushing hug. She pressed her head against his shoulder, and rocked gently in the hug he uneasily returned. Neo, unable to stop herself, and because she's like that, joined in and Roman pulled her closer, his real and adoptive family meeting.

It was a serene moment, whilst other teens chased each other around, or watched the hologram television (which was showing the robbery Roman took part in. Roman supposed he had Glynda to thank for his lack of public announcement.) or staring out of the windows at the scenery beyond.

"Uh, you gonna be okay if I go off?" Yang asked awkwardly. A half-brother you haven't seen in over five years can be sort of hard to communicate to.

"I'll be fine, Yang. You go with your friends, and I'll stay with mine."

"Ooookay. Uh, thanks, Roman."

She hurried off to join a group, presumably all from Signal, who treated him and Neo with suspicious glances but turned and walked with his sister.

"Well." Roman turned to Neo. "We have some time to kill." There was silence for all off two seconds before Neo turned and stalked off, prompting Roman to shout after her and pick up the pace.

"Neo! You really can't just run off like that." a glare quickly silenced him, and he stopped and took a few steps back, his now ungloved hands raised in mock surrender.

Neo nodded with satisfaction, before walking into someone else who's also been backing up, sending the smaller girl sprawling to the floor.

Roman chuckled at the pair, "My my, someone's co-ordinated today." Ignoring the tell-tale signed of fire flashing in the tiny illusionists eyes. He gave the newbie a quick once-over and frowned.

"Weren't you that guy who threw up on the ship?"

Neo threw a disgusted glance in his direction, and once again the arms were up. "Hey, Hey, I'm only saying!"

The kid out a hand for Neo, which she gladly took. "Name's Jaune. Jaune Arc."

Neo once again looked back to Roman, which he took to mean _That Jaune Arc?_

And that Jaune Arc it was.

"Hey, you made it in. Good on you, kiddo."

"U-Uh whaddya mean?"

"Oh, come on, kid! Don't you remember me?"

"Uh… No?"

"Roman Torchwick, of Roman Candle and Torch Wicks?"

The realisation spread through Jaune's eyes. "You're Roman Torchwick?"

"Yep. A fifteen year old kid just got you into Beacon for probably the lowest price you can get."

"Uh… why?"

"For the Lien, kid. But I can see that I wasn't wrong in getting you a spot here. You'd probably be better off going to Signal first, but late is better than never, right?" Neo elbowed him in the gut, being the exact right height to do so, and Roman glared. "Fine. But I want to clear this up really quickly. I'm not gonna grass on you. I don't do stuff for people just to watch 'em burn. I'm also not that sorta person anymore. Ozpin kinda took me in. But if you need anything, just ask."

"Will do. Thanks… Roman?"

"Yeah. Roman. You wanna walk with us?"

At Jaune's nod, they started walking. "So." Jaune finally asked. Who are you? I don't think I caught your name. Or, anything about you really." he trailed off with a nervous laugh.

"Oh!" Roman snapped to attention, his red riding-cloak swishing with his movement. "This is Neo. She's an illusionist, and a mute." Once again, the dreaded elbow dug right into his gut. "Sorry!" he glared, a protective hand over the spot, even though the Aura was once again at work. "You're going to drain my Aura at this point." he grumbled.

"Neo, Huh? Like-"

"The ice cream, yeah. Absolutely addicted to the stuff."

They continued along this route for some time, Neo and Roman arguing, and Jaune attempting to break up the younger pair with mindless small talk. A tactic that proved effective until Roman said something insensitive again, and they resumed arguing.

"Guys?" For once Jaune wasn't stuttering. "Where are we?"

"Oh shhhhh…" Roman stopped himself from swearing just in time and turned to Neo.

"Neo? If you would."

Neo nodded, and at a stomp of her parasol on the floor, the world shattered around him, revealing the grand entrance of the hall. Roman and Neo ran on ahead, forgetting to check if Jaune was okay. It turned out that he wasn't, being disorientated by the first time teleporting, and so all was well.

"Kids!" Roman growled for the umpteenth time, as yet another group of tussling teens knocked into him whilst cat-fighting.

"I swear, this world has gone crazy. Can't a guy enjoy a nice e-book in some peace?"

"Tell me about it." A soft mumble came from beside him, and he turned to get his first proper look at the girl he'd sat against the wall beside.

Her nose was still stuck in her book, a cover Roman recognised very well from a few years ago, when Neo'd prompted him to properly get into reading to appease his boredom, rather than going out and killing everyone, or concocting elaborate scenarios for robberies, making himself try to avoid whatever traps or obstacles he'd put in his own way. He liked plotting, but soon found that he liked reading more.

Especially when they were about plotting.

His eyes widened at the sheer thickness of the book. "It's that thick in real life? Sweet Monty." He glanced down at his own scroll in disbelief. "No wonder that took up so much space."

"You know 'The Envisionment of Hell'?"

"Yeah. Neo got me into reading properly, and it was one of the classics she picked off the shelves for me. And by that, I mean she downloaded them all onto my scroll. I read them, and if I happen to see them properly on the shelves at a shop, I buy them and delete the e-book, to save storage space."

"Huh." She returned to her book. "That's… actually quite smart."

"You think? Neo just said it was a waste of money." Of course Neo said no such thing. Both versions of the books were illegal or stolen. No money wasted.

"Yeah. It's convenient. It does waste a bit of money though."

Roman just easily replied with; "They give me a discount on the second copy because I've already bought one. Most company's all support one Mother Company, and those that don't are more often than not illegal."

She hummed again, looking up and once more fixing him with her yellow gaze, her eyes narrowing suspiciously. "You… seem to know a lot about this."

"I feel safer if I do my research." He pulled the red fabric further over his shoulders and was about to turn back to his own book, but a sentence from his reading-buddy's jumped out at him.

 _She wasn't happy about it, but she'd been recalled to life for a reason._

"You're on that part." He commented. "First read through?"

She fixed her practiced glare on him once more, there was an annoyed edge to her voice when she spoke; almost a growl. "Yes. And I was hoping to finish the book sometime before we get pushed into a group of no doubt loud mouthed, ignorant, selfish sods who can't appreciate when a girl is trying to read."

"Right. No spoilers, then. I'll shut up, now."

"Oh please, _please_ do."


	4. The Emerald Forest Part I

**A/N**

So. Here we are.

The Emerald Forest Part One.

Featuring crazy killing machine Neo and a _very_ small hint towards Roman's semblance.

Thank you to everyone who's reviewed, followed, favourited, read, etc.

As usual, disclaimers.

RWBY is owned by Rooster Teeth (RIP Monty) and faintly-alluded-too backstory as well as title goes to Frank.

 **Important:**

I'd also like to quickly say that depending on my grandparent's liberty with dishing out the Wi-Fi password, I may not be able to update over the next week. I will of course still be writing chapters for this even if they don't get uploaded immediately, so whatever happens, progress with this will be made.

On with the thingy-ma-whatsit!

"Uh… so this landing strategy… What exactly is it again?"

"The landing strategy will be your own."

Roman shrugged at him as Neo launched off the cliff. "Just dig your sword into a tree of something. Or skate across the treetops on your shield."

"I advise you stop talking, Mr Rose, as you are next."

"Right. Sorry. And my name's not Rose. It's Torch-" the thirty second delay between the launch ended, and he was thrown off the side of the cliff along with the others, leaving a not-so consoled Jaune behind.

They had this in the _bag,_ Roman though as he sailed through the air. He and Neo had been launched from cliffs, airships, blimps, you name it, they've been launched off it, plenty of times. He quickly caught up with Neo, who grinned and made eye-contact with him as necessary, and held out her umbrella, which he quickly hooked his cane onto.

A screaming blur shot past them, and a yell of "Thank you!" followed a thunk of Pyrrah's spear embedding itself into a tree.

An "I'm sorry!" followed, and Roman turned to Neo and said, just as they were nearing the treetops, "I think this is where we drop off."

Neo nodded, and opened her parasol, the wind catching it and letting them land neatly on a branch. Neo jumped down and grinned up at Roman, who rolled his eyes and jumped down, his mother's red riding hood fluttering down behind him like Uncle Qrow's did.

"Is teleporting cheating, do you think?"

A buzz from his scroll alerted him to a message. It was from Ozpin. Of course it was.

 _Yes. Yes it is._

"Right." he said, showing the message to Neo. "That would clear that up."

Neo nodded and stalked between the bushes, remembering a route she'd identified from being launched during the thirty seconds before Roman caught up with her. Knowing to trust the ice cream obsessed and themed illusionist, Roman followed.

A flock of birds took flight from the trees, and an angered yowl of a Grimm shook a flutter of leaves from their branches.

"Someone's found their foe." Roman mumbled in that infuriating, oddly poetic way of his. "I wonder, has that Grimm met their match? Or will a hunter be torn to shreds before this fight has even begun?"

Neo gave him her best _shut up I'm thinking look,_ and pushed through some bushes…

Right into a circle of the creatures he so despised.

Neo brought them back-to-back, and politely waited for the first Grimm to make it's move.

A boar-like monster saw Neo as the less threatening of the two, and charged, thinking it had found a blind spot. But there was no blind spot. there never was.

Neo jumped and, like so many other times before, they fell into an almost routine.

Using Roman's back as a platform, Neo jumped high above even the tallest Grimm's head, whilst Roman spin out of the way and shot a flare at it's jaw, effectively dislocating it. The move was only to get Neo in a position to strike and distract that and the other beasts, rather than cause any lasting damage. Roman grappled to a nearby tree to gain the height advantage, as well as avoid the masses of enraged Grimm attacking.

The tip of Neo's parasol flashed silver as the sharp tip emerged, and she crashed down to the hoard, digging the umbrella into the Grimm's neck all the way to the hilt, and opened it, ruthlessly pushing the head of the creature away from it's body, leaving it hanging by a a ribbon of skin, before the lump body collapsed to the floor. Neo neatly somersaulted off the body and landed, bowing gracefully to the Grimm.

Half ran, and were promptly shot down by Ruby's old Crescent Rose. Roman used it ruthlessly, his eyes growing whiter and whiter, before they remained a startling silver-grey, showing that, though he denied it, he was still a Rose.

The remainder of the Grimm charged at Neo, seeing no escape from the hail of bullets by running. Seeing that Neo was about to be crushed, Roman begrudgingly let the last of the escaping Grimm run, before activating the scythe and swiftly beheading around half, whilst Neo brutally took care of the rest.

Once again standing back-to-back, the two of them checked around them for any more Grimm with death wishes. Upon finding none, Roman relaxed against the smaller frame, and turned to a grinning Neo with a matching smile, before gesturing for her to go onwards, neither of them saying a word.

After a good-old-fashioned Grimm fight, the buzz of euphoria stayed with them, prompting neither of them to break a seemingly sacred silence they held as they walked, side by side, as equals to their united goal.


	5. The Emerald Forest Part II

**A/N**

I'm sorry.

I'm sorry for the wait. Though I did say irregular updates, this isn't what I meant.

But school started up and I couldn't get this up before now. Thanks for being patient, and I hope that to those of you that kept with this find the wait worth it.

Usual **Disclaimers** go to Frank and Rooster Teeth.

The rest of their journey was calm enough, with nothing really happening bar Roman's boredom prompting him to convince Neo to let the wind take them to the ruins. They stood on the tops of the trees and Roman huffed.

"I still don't get how teleporting is cheating, but this isn't." he grumbled

Neo just rolled her eyes and raised her parasol in the air, allowing Roman to hook his cane on the end, and opened it. The wind picked up, and they flew higher and higher, Mary Poppins style.

"Giant Nevermore incoming!" Roman yelled after a minute or so of relative silence and safety.

Neo didn't say anything, just hooked her legs underneath Roman's arms and started swinging him, back and forth.

"Hey! What you-?"

The answer was that she was launching him onto the Nevermore's back. After a few second of mountingly furious gesturing, he understood. He hooked his cane around the stem of the umbrella, drawing Neo towards him. She neatly touched down, glared for a second or two, and settled down to enjoy the short ride.

Roman too settled down and relaxed, only he decided to actually keep an eye out for their destination. When the sight of the ruins came into view, he got up from his surprisingly comfortable perch on the bird's beak, and went to rouse Neo, giving the bird a warning smack on the head. Apparently this one had survived long enough as to know when a fight was over.

Reaching a stretched out Neo on the Grimm's back, he saw his opportunity for revenge. He dug his elbows into her exposed gut, and sat back in satisfaction as the mute shot up from lying down on the creature's back, to siting up, a hand over the bruised spot, her illusioned up glasses shattered away into the wind as she glared at him.

She glared at him and he grinned, cocking an eyebrow and monotonously performing a near-perfect impression of a TomTom.

"You have reached your destination."

She glared at him as she stood, and promptly jumped off the Grimm's back, her parasol in hand.

It took a moment to register in his mind that he was now stranded aboard a Nevermore flying right over where he needed to be.

"Well sh-"

His common sense cut him off, and he remembered the cane he carried in his right hand. He rolled his eyes at his own idiocy, and jumped off after her, hooking the grapple around the bird's left foot.

Roman hit the ground running, and yanked on the hook, temporarily putting the Grimm of guard, and several shots from both his dear sister's Ember Celica, and what he saw to be Blake's sword-slash-gun-thing.

He pulled his hook free and shot at it as well, bringing the ickle birdie to the ground. Neo casually strolled up to the half-dead creature and slit it's throat, stilling the beast's savage movements.

"Right!" Roman smiled, clapping his hands together whilst Neo, Yang and Blake looked at him awkwardly. "What's up?"

Neo, wordless as usual, handed him a black knight chess piece.

"Oooooookay." He pocketed the piece, and turned to Yang and Blake. "Was that the Relic?"

"Yep!" Yang grinned. She took a piece out of her own pocket; the counterpart for Roman's. The White Knight. "Look! We're twinsies!"

"You're two years and a half older than me."

"Two years, five months and twenty days. Now come _on!_ Let's get out of here before any more Grimm show up. Blake and I have already fought off three waiting for you."

"Okay." Blake interrupted. "You worked out the exact age difference? To the _day?"_

Yang shrugged. "It would have been to the hour, but I couldn't remember what hour I was born at."

"Two." Roman continued. "You fought off three Grimm waiting for us?"

"Well," Yang shifted uncomfortably. "I- I'm sorta feeling like I have to make it up to you. I dd nothing but complain and talk and push you away after Mum died and-"

"Yang." She glanced up, her lilac eyes wide and slightly wet. "Why are you blaming yourself? You did nothing wrong. You couldn't have helped the situation in the slightest. You were _three years old,_ for crying out loud! What sort of three year old is able to stop a group of kidnappers from taking a _baby?_ And thirdly," He turned to Blake. "You _helped_ her risk her life three times waiting for us? I thought you were half-sensible."

Blake blinked, and Roman suddenly had the feeling he'd seen her before. He couldn't place where though; she didn't seem like one to be involved in his previous line of work. He did come back to reality when she replied, "What can I say? It was a chance to fight some Grimm."

A screaming blur thumped into a tree overhead. There was a rumble behind them as the trees wobbled around, before a few of them were utterly demolished by a Scorpion Grimm, chasing a red-head that Jaune was talking to earlier. At the same time, an Ursa came crashing through the oaks opposite, before being floored by a hyperactive ginger and a giant hammer, as a huffing raven in a dark green tailcoat.

"It seems that we have one more Grimm to fight." Roman drew himself upwards, recognising the hard outer shell of the Deathstalker would be hard to crack.

Yang yelled at the pair that came riding in on the now-dead Ursa to help them. Pyrrah, the red-head, raced past, her green eyes seeming to recognise Roman, but thankfully she was too distracted by the Deathstalker.

"What do we do?" Jaune had managed to clamber out of the tree, and had caught up with them.

"There's eight of us, and only one of it. We should manage to take it down." Never mind that a pair of kids, one fifteen and one _twelve,_ for crying out loud, had single-handedly taken down a whole hoard of Boarbutusk.

 _Providing these people aren't stupid, this should be_ _ **easy.**_

"We need to break it's shell. Does anyone have a hammer, or explosives, or-"

"Hammer here, primed and ready!" The Ursa trainer from before saluted and held a silver hammer with a pink heart on the end above her head. Swapping placed with Pyrrah, she neatly jumped up onto the creatures head, and proceeded to smash the thing's skull in.

"Also, get rid of that glowing thing!" Jaune yelled.

A shot from Ember Celica quickly rendered "that glowing thing", as it was so delicately put, a splattered mess before it managed to squash Nora. Several blasts from the two-in-one cannon/hammer cracked a spot in the armour, though not big enough to be impacted any more by the hammer.

She jumped off and shrugged off then, completely forgetting the danger of the still active pincers if the revenge-driven monster.

Ren quickly took care of that, with a quick shot to one, and the blades underneath the barrels detaching the other.

"Is that it?" Blake asked. "When you said "well here's some more, I kind of expected to be fighting some Grimm."

"Hey, don't blame me. I didn't know that only one Grimm would still be alive."

"As… enlightening as this conversation is, I believe that we should probably head back now. Has everyone got their relics?"

Upon a confirming nod, all headed back.

Ozpin slurped his coffee quietly, and contemplated the new teams.

Jaune Arc, Pyrrah Nikkos, Nora Valkyrie and Lie Ren had all retrieved the rooks. But what would their team name be? Team… Jup- no, that wouldn't work. Je- nope, not that either.

Jur… Jun… Juniper?

Team Juniper. Team JNPR.

What about Roman's team? Roman, Neo, Blake and Yang. He honestly didn't have a clue as to how to name this team.

Team… Team… Ran… Rune… Runeby?

Team Runeby. Team RNBY.

Ozpin smiled and settled back, silently congratulating himself on another generation of Teams well named.

"Jaune Arc, Nora Valkyrie, Pyrrah Nikkos, Lie Ren. You retrieved the Rook pieces, and are now known as Team Juniper, with team leader, Jaune Arc."

Roman was offstage, waiting to be called on, but he didn't really care at that point. Neo gave him another one of her infamous elbow-gut-jabs, and he quickly sobered up, waiting for them to call his name. Being his back, he crossed his fingers and closed his eyes, praying that they'd not do-

"Roman Rose," he winced and waited for the entire team to be called. "Neopolitan Crystal, Blake Belladonna and Yang Xiao Long."

He sighed and walked on anyway, realising as he did that the mere mention of the name "Torchwick" was probably not the best idea. He did used to be a thieving, murdering (he shuddered at the thought of the past) terrorist, after all.

"You retrieved the knight pieces, and are now known as Team Runeby, with leader Roman Rose."

Roman glanced over to his new teammates. Blake was smiling, as though relieved that the leader was a fellow bookworm, or at least that she wasn't team leader. Yang had broken out into the biggest grin, and was probably trying to stop herself from tackling him in one of her beat hugs onstage.

Neo, however, had no qualms over this. She pinned a wriggling Roman to the floor in a hug, and grinned sadistically when his eyes widened in fear.

He let out a nervous laugh. "Are you sure Neo shouldn't be team leader? I'm sure at least one less person will be dead because of it.

Blake's smile grew as the hall erupted in laughter and applause.

"Thank you, thank you! I'll be here till this time in four years!"

An elbow to the gut from Neo said otherwise, and Roman gasped in pain, doubling over and muttered, "Perhaps not."


	6. So I'm not dead

**SUPER MASSIVE SUPER BORING A/N**

Hey, do you guys remember when I said I didn't like the characterisation of Tai and where the story was going? Yeah, that's come up again!  
So I've barely written anything for this, and in fact started a BRAND NEW THING with my friend. So yeah, probably expect to see that sometime soon, if you don't absolutely hate me and continue with life pretending I no longer exist.

Now if anyone reads fics after-the-fact like I often do, you'll be confused about what I'm talking about. The original story was called Thief of a Son, because it was all I could come up with, so I said "To heck with it, I'll include Tai in here somewhere!" That was only supposed to be a small part of it, but I got STUCK. But I'd be an utter hypocrite if I just ditched the damn thing, as people who would have followed no doubt think I have, because I hate abandoned stories.

The new title came to me late at night whilst I had writers block for this other strange and unknown upcoming fic (To be a background fic for our favourite criminal duo plu a couple thousand OC's), and was struggling over what to do over this one. As previously mentioned, I don't want to abandon it. So I figured, "I HAVE A FIC. RIGHT HERE. I DON'T NEED TO MESS WITH IT."

So yeah. If you followed the previous story, or are interested in where it would have gone, this is what I did (Warning for really bad writing and about eight OC's because I have *gasps* FRIENDS! Who want me to include their OCs in my stories). If you're a writer yourself, and want to finish it for whatever strange and fantastical reason, just PM me or something. We can probably figure something out in this hypothetical situation of mine.  
Also I'll be reuploading previous chapters to smooth out continuity issues.

Cool? Cool. Hope this makes sense.

…

Also have done full and complete backstory for Weiss if anyone wants to see that. (I think it's complete, anyway) (Edit: it's not)

...

Neo snuggled down comfortably, watery illusions of her dreams casting over the wall. Roman sat, cross-legged with a box of popcorn in his lap and watching the dream-film. Neo shifted somewhat, and the impromptu film evaporated from the walls.

Roman huffed. "Oh come on!" he complained, and Neo sat up abruptly, glaring. Roman grinned over his shoulder at her. "Don't worry. No one else saw."

Neo glared, and her illusions accidentally kicked in again, making her seem larger and more threatening, and the room smaller.

The door slammed open, and Yang emerged from the bathroom with Blake, a broken hairbrush, and an unsuccessful hair taming session in tow.

"No good." Blake informed them, chucking the broken hairbrush in the bin whilst Yang sighed theatrically and plopped onto the one of the four beds as she'd claimed as her own.

Roman squinted at Yang's mane. "I think it's better." he said slowly.

"It's nooooooot!" Yang whinged, flipping over onto her back.

"Yang, we don't have time for this. Classes start in ten minutes."

Neo made a small chocking noise and pushed the covers off, leaping over Yang (The beds were pushed together because there was no room for four beds to sit in this miniature room) and slamming the door to the bathroom herself.

When she came back, the first thing that struck her was Yang and Roman in an argument, in front of a giant "The Achieve Men" poster.

"I'm just saying that Gavin doesn't deserve to be part of the Achieve Men!" Roman growled, getting right in his sister's face.

"And why on earth would you say that?" Yang snarled back, pushing Roman to the floor.

"Because all he does is give out bad one-liners and miss his shots all the time."

"He does _not!"_

"He does too!"

"NOT!"

"DOES!"

"NOT!"

"I KNOW WHAT I'M TALKING ABOUT." Roman rolled his eyes and donned his signature hat, brushing his bangs over to one side of his face. "Do you really not recognise me, Sister dearest?"

Yang's eyes widened and she stumbled back, falling over a pile of Books that Blake had yet to organise.

"Roman? Roman _Torchwick?_ As in that one guy who escaped Weiss Schnee six times without so much as and ice-burn?"

"The one and only. Now," Roman glanced around the room, frowning at the three beds which were still pushed together. "I think we may be in need of bunk beds."

Neo pulled out her scroll and, as fast as if she were actually speaking, typed out; _No. Just no._

And with that, Bonzai was over.

...

"Give it here." Weiss stretched out her hand, and took the handle of the case that was placed into it. She opened the case and read over the orders, settled neatly over a few vials of high-quality dust, grimacing slightly as she compared them to the notes on the map.

She glanced at the Faunus beside her, who cowered away from her gaze despite her new-found begrudging respect for them for making her father's life hell. She shook her head at him, and turned away.

"We're going to need more help."

...

The first few days of classes were uneventful, as they were all introductions to the subject at hand. Roman, however didn't fail to notice his sister's gaze settled firmly on his back. It was rather unnerving, and put Roman off from actually listening for half the lessons. Not that it mattered. He knew everything anyway.

But still. He could understand if Yang didn't trust him, per say, but watching him like he was going to suddenly blow up and slaughter the entire school? (A prospect, Roman thought as he scowled over at Cardin Winchester as he "talked" with Velvet, which suddenly didn't seem so bad.)

But even Roman had lows, and killing people just because they were there was definitely a low. He wasn't the worst out there, with the White Fang, Weiss Schnee and the fire-girl from before ranking high on the list, and so Yang had nothing to worry about. The last time he'd killed was before when he was still working with the White Fang, waaaaaay back when Ghira Belladonna was leader.

Belladonna… where had he heard that name recently?

No matter. The point is that he was here like a good, normal little boy who only wanted to hone his killing abilities and turn his anger from killing unjustified men to soulless beasts.

By the time that Friday evening of that week rolled around, Roman was about ready to punch something. Preferably Yang's face, and when she pulled him aside after dinner, he was about ready to do so.

"Roman, I'm going to be straight with you. Do you… want to speak with Dad?"

That was enough to make him reconsider raising his fists, and he thought about it.

… _do I? Do I want to speak with my biological father? I really should have thought about this._

Because, of course, the thought of the question had occurred to him. He just chose to push it away, ignore it, telling himself that when the question did come, he'd have some magical spur-of-the-moment decision, not this wrenching indecisiveness.

He swallowed, hating himself for the answer he was to give, and hoping the indifference he'd hammered into himself would hold true. "No. At least, not yet."

Yang looked crushed, and Roman's self-loathing intensified. "I will speak to him, Yang. I promise. Just… not yet. I still need to figure a few things out."

Neo came and tapped him on the shoulder, having eavesdropped and, knowing the situation, came and rescued him.

"I'm coming, Neo. I just needed to speak with Yang first." As Neo dragged him away, he turned back to his sister and called back to her, hoping to ease the hurt in her eyes. "I promise, Yang! I promise!"

The day rolled by, and in the evening, he let himself into the dorm room, hoping to find Blake, as she's borrowed a book of his. No one was in there, except for Yang. She was in the middle of a call, and evidently seemed rather frustrated with the person on the other end.

"I'm telling you, it's him! He's-"

"In the middle of a call. Sorry for interrupting." Roman mumbled as Yang turned and glared from the top bunk.

He shuffled out and closed the door, not bothering to use the age-old trick of re-opening the door to hear in. He could already hear.

"Then why won't he speak with me? His own Dad!"

"And that's the problem? Just because he won't speak with you yet-"

"At all," Tai put in darkly.

"Doesn't mean that you need to return the favour by refusing to trust him, even if it's behind his back. Especially if it's behind his back." Yang returned harshly, the ends of her hair beginning to crackle with flames. Roman had no doubt that if her could see her now, her eyes would be that vivid red that Roman had only the misfortune of seeing once, when he'd "experimented" with one of her many Gavin Free figurines.

"Honey," An exasperated sigh came from the other end of the call. "I've seen that kid on TV for the past five or so years, and nothing has ever indicated him to be the kind-hearted boy you say he is. He's acting. He has to be."

Roman felt his stomach twist at Tai's words. He doubted his dad would listen to Yang, whatever she said.

"Or he's changed."

"I'm just saying, Dragon, that there's no evidence at all to say that he's a Rose. Does he have her eyes?"

 _Yes!_

"Well, no, but-"

"Well there you go! Silver eyes are almost guaranteed to be passed on genetically, they're so rare. He's not Razzle, Yang!"

"He has mum's hood!"

"He stole it!" The blunt accusation carried so much certainty in it, it was almost authoritative, and coupled with the starting-to-be-raised voice left no doubt in either Yang or Roman's minds that Tai believed it.

"Dad!" the horrified exclamation rang throughout the room, breaking the silence only filled previously with heavy grunts of anger.

"He did, he stole it. He's a thief, isn't he? He stole it from my Razz."

"He did not steal it, Dad!"

"He did! He stole it from my son, my Rose and now he's playing you like a fiddle!"

There was the sound of a call being disconnected, and a light thud of the scroll hitting the door on the opposite side of the room.

Roman swallowed from the other side of the door, wanted for a second and pushed it open, taking in the sight of Yang standing hunched on the top bunk, eyes a vivid red and shoulders heaving in anger.

"Yang, what's wrong?" the lie of innocence slipped from his tongue, years if talking himself out if situations coming into play. Roman inwardly flinched, the _thought that this is what Tai was talking about_ striking him. Hard.

"Yang?"

At the sight of Roman's concerned eyes, the crimson-scarlet red faded, the stark contrast between the red and the pale of her skin dissipating, leaving her looking hollow, empty, discoloured and washed out. But most of all, she looked defeated.

Yang opened her mouth as if to protest anything being wrong as Roman pulled himself up onto her bunk, but seemed to realise arguing would be useless. Instead, she sat beside Roman with her legs dangling over the side and get hands in her lap, while Roman, his own legs crossed, looked at her worriedly.

"I-" She stopped and started over. "I was talking to Dad. He called and asked me how I was doing, and then how you were doing. I said that we were fine, and then he sort of hummed, like he was thinking. I asked him what was wrong, and then he just said, out of the blue, "Is he really Razzle Rose?" It put me off big time, but I said yes, you are, and then everything…" She stopped again and swallowed. When she spoke again, her voice was cracked and almost matted sounding. "Everything just went downhill."

She glanced over to Roman. "I know you heard me shouting. I don't know how it sounded, but I was defending you. Just know that."

She looked back down to her hands and started playing with Ember Celica. "I just… don't really understand how he could talk like that about you. To me."

Roman hesitated for a moment and sighed, bringing Yang to meet his gaze again

"When we first met, on the airship. You acted… odd around me." Yang frowned at the half-accusation but nodded anyway. "Do you remember why?" Hesitation, and then a head shaking negative. "It's because you didn't know me. I might as well have been a stranger. I could have been lying about being your brother, I could have been an illusion, a hallucination… I could have been anything. But you still trusted me. After all, siblings are supposed to trust each other, right?" She nodded, wiping at her face with the back if her arm. But that wasn't the point Roman was going for.

"But we didn't have that trust. We're supposed to know each other, but we didn't. It was awkward. It was because we didn't know each other."

Now Ta-Dad," he forced the term past his teeth and was rewarded when Yang looked up, grateful. "Dad's probably experiencing the same thing, but without the trust that you showed me. I did say no to talking with him, and he probably took that as an offensive sign. All he knows me as is that one kid criminal he's heard about from TV and has hated, along with the rest if Vale, for years. And then it's suddenly sprung on him that we're related? I'm not surprised he doesn't trust me.

Given time, I'm sure it'll all be fine, and we can give this "family" thing a go, yeah?" Yang nodded, at least somewhat consoled, and Roman smiled.

"Now I have to go. There are half-a-dozen Achieve Men posters eating to be burned sadistically calling my name" A light-hearted punch from Yang assured him of her renewed optimism and he laughed and hopped off the bunk, clutching his already bruising arm in a pain that wasn't entirely fake.

"And Yang?"

"Hmm?" She looked up, lilac eyes fixing on his own moss-green.

"Thanks for sticking up for me. It can't have been easy."

She frowned at him, taking the wrong impression. "He isn't usually like that, you know."

He reached the door and turned back to her, his hand on the doorknob. "Just makes it all the harder."

...

"Hello, Father dear." Roman cheerfully spoke into the scroll in his most recognisable Torchwick voice, leaving no room for doubt in anyone's mind, let alone Tai's, who was on the other end.

"Hello, Torchwick."

"Oh please, call me Roman. Only my enemy's call me Torchwick, and believe me, they don't tend to do so for long."

"So you've killed, then."

Roman paused, his cheerful Torchwick demeanour fading slightly, and he sighed with regret. "I won't deny it. I have killed, but only when I've had to. Self defense and all that. I meant that I simply… remove people from the grander scheme if things. Mainly by knocking them out, the removing all memory of whatever past life they'd had and ditching them in the hills, leaving them to find whatever clan that other survivors had formed. Completely non-lethal. Though the city-rats are a little more… concerning."

"This isn't what we should be talking about." Tai, to an untrained ear, sounded calm. But Roman's vigorously trained ears picked up a wavering thread of underlying resentment.

"So it would seem." Roman sighed and sat down on the bed, folding his legs. "I've managed to get everyone out of the room for ten minutes at most. We're going to need to be fast if we're to talk this out."

"Talk what out? Neither of us have done anything."

Roman chuckled. "Don't lie, Tai. That wouldn't set a very good example for me, now, would it?"

A sigh emmited from the speakers on the scroll. "Have we arrived at the topic at hand yet?" Roman rhetorically wondered aloud. "I believe we have.

I am going to make this very clear this one time, before blows start being thrown. My previous occupation in life has been… this disbanded by none other than the generosity of Dear Ozpin's heart. Are we clear?"

"Yes." a grudging voice spoke, "Well, no. Not really. I don't particularly trust you, Roman, whether you're my son or not. Even if Ozpin trusts you, I'm still going to speak with him. I don't really like the idea of you in Beacon. I don't trust you."

"Oh believe me, the feeling's mutual." Roman responded airily. "But can I ask you something?"

"Go on." Tails reply came, albit cautiously.

"It wasn't hard to hear the conversation between you and Yang on Friday. I don't care if you hate me or loathe me or anything if the like, but Yang has been torn up over this situation ever since. Make an effort to repair things with her. Try and fix things with her. That's all I ask."

Tai was silent. Roman wondered what was going through his head for a moment before a heavy exhale came through. "Okay. You've convinced me. Only Summer's kid would be able to convince me like that"

"I- I wasn't-"

"But I still don't trust you. I will never trust you, Torchwick. You may be my kid, but you will never be my son."

 _Damn, those words hurt._

Roman would later contemplate angrily _why_ he was being so insistent on gaining his father's approval, but at that time, all he could process was a hollow _thunk_ of silence within his chest.

"Ouch." he finally muttered after a good five seconds.

A pale hand pressed the disconnect button and slid the scroll shut. His moss-green eyes were a greyed silver as they met Neo's saddened blue, and he couldn't hold it in.

Neo's hugs had never failed him before, and today held no different. Living with Neo for nearly all his life, and putting his life into her hands in more than one occasion had taught him something he turned back to far more often than something like; _trust Neo. Never overestimate her. Never get on her bad side or you are screwed._ Which wasn't bad advice at all. But no, it was, in fact, _anger cannot replace sadness as an emotion. Always cry about something rather than lashing out._ Roman found himself sinking into Neo's arms, never saying a word. The only sounds to break the fragile silence were the thick, yet almost whispered sobs, and Neo's nonverbal murmurs if reassurance.

Roman drew in a steep breath as if to try and steady himself, and let it out again. "Thanks for being here with me for that."

Neo pulled him back slightly and suddenly gave him a grin. Roman smiled uneasily back, but soon turned it into a genuine, mirroring one of his own.

...

Despite the slight lift he got from Neo's help after the forsaken call, Roman barely comprehended the following weeks, often sneaking out under Ozpin's radar to the Emerald forest to hunt, sometimes only for a few minutes, and once nearly the whole day when the weekend rolled around.

The half term came and went, along with Yang, who went back to the Patch after a make-up argument with her father, as was their custom, apparently. Blake went… back towherever she came from for the holidays, leaving Roman and Neo to spend most of their time in Vale, loitering in shops that didn't recognise the two from their past days and stealing trinkets from those that did. Neo's semblance was called into play once or twice, but other than that the days were better than those spent in lessons, where her brother seemed detached and almost… depressed.

Roman himself seemed better for the time off spend doing what they did best. He relished every successful scam, every suspicious glare that nonetheless let them off, every time a cry of alarm went up when someone noticed their hard work… Tai was right. And Roman was fine with Tai being right. Tai had no impact on Roman's life anymore. Tai didn't want Roman.

And Roman didn't want Tai. He could forgive him for Yang, because the two made up and he apologised to her. But his last stinging words before Neo ended the call stayed with Roman, ringing around him when he wasn't totally focused on one thing.

" _But I still don't trust you. I will never trust you, Torchwick. You may be my kid, but you will never be my son."_

On the last day before Yang returned, Roman had had enough. Rolling out of the bed and onto a mat that cushioned his fall, he looked around to check Neo and Blake were still asleep (Blake had returned earlier that day with a relieved smile on her face and a slight tan) and made his way outside, pausing only to retrieve his Melodic Cudgel, his old lighter, and several pieces of paper.

It was around eleven when he set out, and half an hour later when he reached the Vale docks, where hopefully no one would be this time of night.

Tai's words were repeating like a mantra in his head, so the problem would never be remembering them.

" _I still don't trust you. I will never trust you,_

 _Torchwick. You may be my kid, but you will_

 _Never be my son."_

Right. Time to do what he came here to do. He wrote down the words on the three sheets he brought, and set about stripping all meaning from the words.

"I don't trust you, _Taiyang."_ he sneered at the sheet of paper bearing Tai's words, before shooting it, leaving a smoking hole where the dot of the I in Torchwick was. "I will never trust you." Another shot, this time one of Roman's favoured explosive ones, leaving the previously white paper blackened and singed, making the black of the sharpie almost invisible against the background. "You may be my father," he crept closer to the sign, "But you will _NEVER_ BE MY DAD!" he yelled out, and brought the hooked end down, ripping the paper in half.

He was worked into a rage now, and couldn't, wouldn't stop now. The lighter, then.

The paper burned deliciously. Rolling smoke curled upwards, and the edges burned a reddish-orange as the sheet deteriorated. Roman inhaled the smoke briefly and smiles at the scent, before turning away and muttering his own mantra in a low voice; "I don't trust you, Taiyang. I will never trust you. You may he my father, but you will never be my dad."

The last sheet was really the least proactive one. Roman laid there, and slowly began tearing Tai's phrases apart.

 _(Warning; Roman thought monologue)_

"But I still don't trust you. I will never trust you, Torchwick. You may be my kid, but you will never be my son."

 _Why should I care about Tai says? It's clear he doesn't care about me. Which is bad, because I can't stop thinking about_ _ **him.**_ _I wonder what Azure would have done… (_ Azure being Roman's adoptive dad and Neo's biological one. Roman completely idolized him. Still does.) _He'd probably get on with it. I need to, too._

 _Am I justified in cutting myself from my own father, though? He did it first, but is turning this back on him really the best thing to do?_

 _I need to think about Yang and Neo here, too. If Tai lets me stay, then Neo can't really go back to the streets, can she? We barely survived before, with just the two of us. Though mostly it was Neo saving me… point is, would Tai let Neo stay as well? I know Yang really has no problem with it, but Tai has the worst impression of us right now. Even if he somehow has a miraculous one-eighty over me, he still holds a grudge for "dishonest" folk._

 _And how's Yang going to react if I come to the end of this and tell her I'm not her brother anymore… it all rides on Tai. He's got to call the right shots for all of this to blow over, but right now we're in the middle of a-_

"Yea, sorry to interrupt your existential crisis, _flamehead,_ but you're sorta in the way of… I don't know, all of our future successes, perhaps?"

 _...warzone._

 _..._

"Backup needed. This is Waypoint Bridge, I repeat, backup needed."

The pre-recorded message startled Neo out of her sleep, and she played the message again. Her eyes widening, she scrambled to the side of the bed, landing on the inflatable mat Roman had used earlier.

"Neo?" a groggy voice came from the other side of the room. Blake, her bow wilting slightly from sleep (or lack thereof) glanced up at the tiny twelve-year-old, rubbing her amber cat-eyes. Neo decided pointing out the flaw in the pivotal flaw of Blake's honestly pointless disguise could wait; Roman, or Waypoint Bridge as his new codename was, was in danger. The call was a last resort. Roman hoped to never use it, Neo knew this. So she beckoned Blake to hurry and ran out the door.

...

"Wow." Weiss giggled uncharacteristically. Roman suspected she was a little bit bonkers from all the dust powder she'd been inhaling during her career, but it was just a theory. (A criminal theory! Thanks for watching ( _sorry!_ ))

"And you say I have daddy problems, Torchwick."

"You do have daddy problems." Roman pointed out. "Just mine are worse."

She glared and drew her rapier dramatically, gesturing for the White Fang thugs to stay back. "This one's mine," she hissed at them, and they drew respectfully back from the dust weilding ice-queen.

"Eh. Wouldn't be so sure about that.' Roman shrugged,

"You're so sure you can match _me?"_

"I have done so a couple… hundred times."

"You're just _determined_ to be the hero of Vale, aren't you?"

"Yeah. I figured why not? Because I definitely have way better chances of surviving with a hero complex. That was sarcasm, by the way. I didn't volunteer for any sort of "I want to help people" nonsense. I joined Beacon to get Neo and I off the streets."

"...congratulations, flamehead. You take once again destroyed me with your witty sarcasm."

"All you can say, Ice Queen?" Roman taunted.

"I don't need to come up with snappy comebacks, Torchwick." Weiss was clearly unsatisfied with her latest retort. "Myranstrater here does the talking for me."

Weiss smirked, and launched herself forwards on her famed glyphs. Roman dodged her blade by a millimetre, keeping his self-satisfied smirk firmly in place. "And she missed! I must honestly say, Peter, I did expect more from Miss Weiss." he intoned, doing his very best impression of Professor Oobleck, whilst simultaneously firing shots at her to make her back off.

"What gives _you_ the right to call me Weiss?" she jabbed again, hate boiling red in her deep, crazed blue eyes. "Only-"

"It is your given name, is it not?" Roman wasn't trying to be clever, or flirty, or anything else. He was stalling. A buzz from his scroll in Morse code had told him Neo was on he way with Blake and hopefully Yang, so all he had to do was keep Weiss moving. Preferably away from him. That rapier was _sharp._

"Whether it is or isn't is none of your business, you pathetic excuse for a thief." she spat, bringing Myranstrater film looks kw a broadsword, which Roman quickly defended and pushed off.

"Who're you calling pathetic?" he demanded, aiming a swing at her now-exposed legs, only for it to be parried and countered. "I'm the best damn thief in this city. I'm leagues better than you, at any rate."

"And yet _you_ weren't hired for this job. My job."

"Because I turned them down." Roman caught Weiss across the head and sent her flying, causing the surrounding White Fang to raise their weapons. "I turned them down, I ran, and I got away. They don't see me as a threat, so they didn't tell _you."_

That seemed to strike Weiss hard. Roman had no idea as to what was going on in her head, but he figured it was probably akin to the sting of betrayal. And a sting like that on someone like Weiss wouldn't bide too well for him.

 _...that might have just been the worst idea you've ever had. Congratulations, Torchwick, you've just got us killed._

Weiss slowly got to her feet. She masked her face and her body language so Roman couldn't tell what she was thinking, something she probably picked up whilst she was still the heiress of the Schnee company. Clutching her rapier in both hands like King Arthur's sword, she plunged it into the center of a glyph in the ground, digging it in until it was around halfway in. A much larger, black and ice-blue glyph appeared behind her, and from it rose a custom made, dust powered fighting knight.

"...oh."

Weiss grinned to herself as Roman began to feel much smaller in comparison to Weiss. However, his semblance of sensing the next move told him he'd be fine. All he could do was trust. It had never let him down before.

And sure enough, right as the great sword tried to strike, Neo dropped from god-knows what heaven like a twelve-year-old angel of adorable death, and stopped the blow right in it's tracks with her umbrella. The giant stumbled, and a crack appeared in it's armour, just in the center of it's breastplate.

"Go for the weak spot and defend it's attacks!" a familiar voice called out. _Yang!_

"What about the White Fang?" Blake half asked, half yelled as a formidable cry arose from the charging group behind them.

"Okay… Neo, you cover Yang while she's dealing with the giant killing robot semblance guardian thing, and you and I, Blake, can deal with the White Fang, because we know their tactics and stuff."

"How do you know-" Blake's indignant cry was overriden by White Fang members clashing against the two of them. It wasn't difficult, because the new White Fang warriors were mainly brutes who didn't know how to use anything other than axes, chainsaws, heavy duty machine guns, and brute strength. Y'know, because they're brutes. It was a simple case of knocking their tiny brains out cold and stepping over the bodies, one by one.

Once that lovely job was done, dusted and out of the way, Roman and Blake were free to move on to Weiss's demon from hell. Neo and Yang had done admirably, the chest plate almost shattering then and there, and Weiss herself was fatigued and frustrated perched on her Iron Giant's shoulder. A tremor from another one of Neo's blocks shook the black knight, and Weiss held onto the rim of the helmet and the shoulder plate with all her might, giving Blake a clear opportunity to strike Gambol Shroud right into the guardian's broken breastplate. Which she took, obviously.

A sharp ache ran through Weiss's head, alerting her too late of the misfortune of her summoned knight. She fell as the darkened metal splintered away, crying out something intelligible (which was almost worse for her image than hearing what she actually screamed) before landing neatly into a bullhead at a half upturned angle.

The machine flew away, and Team RNBY watched it as it touched a corner of Vale's valleys.

"Sanctum, status?"

"I don't get this whole code name thing." Blake complained. "Why are we named after the primary combat schools?"

"Because the Academies make it to obvious."

"And why am I Element? Why am I Vacuo?"

"More importantly, why so you get to be Atlas?" "Because I'm Team leader, Yang. Duh."

Roman turned and walked over to inspect a not-so-brutish brutes weapon, a revolver with a knife attached to the top that doubles a a sight, while Neo typed out a message on her scroll. _Ozpin inflated his ego even more than it was previously,_ she explained _. And it was already the size of a large blimp._

Blake snorted. "You can say that again."

 _You remember him from the White Fang?_ Neo enquired.

Blake sighed, knowing the game was up for her secret. "How could I not? Roman was probably among the first humans in Vale that didn't treat the White Fang, or faunus in general, like scum."

"Wait! Hold up a second." Yang rubbed her face for a moment, gathering her thoughts and her courage to string together a question. "You three were with the White Fang?"

"Yes. It was back when the White Fang were a peaceful organisation with non-violent rally's and protests for faunus rights. Roman worked with us for a while, getting us resources and organising revolts. He left when my father stepped down, seeing the new leader for what he is. A coward and a tyrant. I just wish I had left with them."

"Your _fath-_ nope, not going to press any further into this than I need to."

"That's what I like to hear." Roman appeared beside them, his pockets suspiciously full for someone who was only _looking_ at the White Fang's weapons and totally, honestly not stealing them for weapon ideas and parts, I promise.

...

"Yeah. Light Rozu? I'm in big trouble. Can I meet you tomorrow in the cafe? I've got this _huge_ deal going on Wednesday with my personal life, and I just rang to let you know I'll be coming round then at four. Two tomorrow good with you? Yuhuh? Kay. See ya, buddy. You're the best."

...

Light put down the phone. It was a more old-timey one, and it make a chinking ring when you put it down, but Tiffany and Basil insisted on keeping it.

"Ink?" he called over to a purple-haired magician playing around with a deck of cards.

"Yeah?"

"Roman just rang. Said something about Wednesday and everything going to hell."

"Sounds like girl problems." Ink noted hopefully.

"Nah." Tiffany shook her head as she exited the kitchen and set the tray of gingerbread men down on the display cabinet, reaching in to set the iced biscuits down. "Roses don't have "girl problems". They have "weapon problems"."

"Seriously, though! When is he going to realise that more than "Weapons! Weapons! Weapons!" exist?" Ink remarked somewhat spitefully.

"Probably not for a while, yet." Basil noted whilst Light hummed in agreement.

"And so begins the plight of Team Liberty (LBTI). Why did we move to Vale for Roman, again?" Tiffany threw her hands up theatrically and returned to the oven.

"Because Azure asked us to keep an eye on him and Neo." Ink reminded her.

"Because we _definitely_ didn't fail at that." Tiffany snorted, earning one of Ink's "Do not mess around or you will die." glares.

"Also Ink has an everlasting obsession with getting the two together." Light added.

"Which is never going to work," Basil noted, earning one of the death glares for himself. "Because they think of each other like siblings, not friends we can suddenly push together," he defended.

"The truest of truths that only the true truer of truths could truth." (try saying that five times fast. (that that that that that)) Tiffany sighed, her lion ears twitching in one of her "philosophical" moments.

...

"So, to recap. Evan said he'll be popping around about half ten with the sheep army, so prepare anyone who wanders in for that. Also, Roman's coming tomorrow at two, in the unlikely event that anyone's forgotten," Light dictated his team as they set about giving the small cafe a final sweep-over. "Anything else to add?"

"More cookies than usual today," Tiffany piped up, her ears twitching at the invisible sound of Basil failing to find the coffee beans yet again. She sighed standing from the plush chair and stalking over to the kitchen. "I'll make sue he hadn't killed himself, then," she grumbled.

"You're the only one that can actually tell what's going on!" Ink called after her.

"So? Haven't you lot developed psychic powers yet? Gosh what _have_ you been doing for the past several thousand years!"

"We fought a war that was for pretty much no reason!" Basil helpfully noted. The biscuit tin fell on his head as he reached up to snag the tin of coffee. "And we've been getting worse at pretty much everything. Including hand-eye co-ordination."

...

"...And that's about it. My dad's mad, I'm mad, and Qrow's… Qrow."

"Also mad."

"We know Qrow." Ink told him. "We got him out of a sticky patch with a pack of bandits. You know he was one when he was about 15, right?" Roman nodded, whilst Yang looked vaguely confused. Blake stared off into the distance, half paying attention to the conversation. Neo was Neo, smuggling up to Tiffany and illusioning up a miniature pair of lioness' for herself. "Well we were the guys that helped him get out."

"In reality," Light interrupted, "All we did was tell him to make a run for it when they were on a raid, and never look back."

Blake's eyes flicked to the team of four, scanning them. Only Ink noticed, and they held gazes for a moment, trying to read each other.

"Hey, Roman." Tiffany giggled suddenly. "Ink got really worried, yesterday, about your call. She thought you'd finally discovered girls."

Everyone's eyes snapped to the green-eyed red-head. Roman screwed his face up. "Nope. I'm not cheating on Melodic Cudgel. Still wholeheartedly devoted to him."

"So our Roman still hasn't found his little heartthrob." Basil lamented sarcastically.

"You'd better hope not." Ink leant forwards, her eyes glinting. "When boys can't get over their hormones, it can really play havoc with them. You wanna watch out for if Roman catches his eye on anyone."

Neo shivered at the thought, and Roman gave her a fake hurt look. "Have a little faith, Neo!" he complained. "I'm not gonna go over the edge of that cliff anytime soon."

"Yeah, who would want Torchwick for a last name?"

Everyone turned to look at Light. "Well.." Roman said slowly, "Me. Duh."

"Yeah. You chose to call yourself Torchwick just because you thought it sounded cool."

"Torchwick is a cool name!"

"Yeah, well you would say that, wouldn't you?"

Roman harrumphed loudly, crossing his arms over his trench coat. "Yes, Yang. I would. Which is why I did."

"Mhm." Light shook his head. "Also, your dad sounds creepy. Just saying. And _you_ sound creepy. Writing a quote on a piece of paper and then shooting at it? But your dad sounds creepier. Any ideas on how to handle him?"

Ink frowned. "You realise we're talking about a person, right? You don't "deal with" people." she suddenly frowned and turned to Roman. "He is a person, right? Made sure he's not the reincarnation of the Grimm Lady?"

"Now _that_ would be cool." Tiffany lamented.

"Actually, I haven't. My sources rarely have a "not the reincarnation of the creator of the Grimm" box to check. I'll get on that. ("Roman! Dad's not the reincarnation of the Grimm Lady!") For now… precaution-wise, just don't try to kill him. However bad he might act, I think I'd rather have a chance at making this up to my dad."

"Got it." came the grudging echo of compliance back to him.


End file.
